A study revealed that some of the art and craft supplies being used by most Washington, D.C. area public school districts (City of Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax counties--Virginia; Montgomery and Prince George's counties--Maryland; and the District of Columbia) contained toxic ingredients which could cause serious, long-term damage, sterility,…

Drawings designed by three identical and three fraternal, normal, 6- and 7-year-old twin pairs are inspected for signs of a struggle for individual identity. Each twin must go through the process of becoming aware of him/herself as separate from the mother and must individuate from his/her twin as well. Interdependence may retard maturation. In…

Reports the results of a two-year case study of 144 third and fourth graders' art materials preferences. Results indicate that the students preferred different media for different reasons, with favorites being clay, craypas, felt-tipped pens, and cardboard or wood. Maintains that art educators should take into account students' perceptions about…

Administered the Draw a Family Test to 41 children after parental separation and one year later. Results showed children in mother custody families omitted fathers from the drawings. An increasing constriction in the drawings of one quarter of the sample at followup questioned children's adjustment to divorce over time. (JAC)

Approximately 524 children, grades K-5, were asked to draw a plain or designed cube. At all grade levels, the plain cube was represented as a square with far greater frequency than was the designed cube. Perspective drawings, attempted and achieved, were more frequent for the plain cube. (Author/RM)

For one instructor, years of working with children in the art classroom suggested that talking with children is necessary and vital to understanding how they learn artistically and how to teach them. This paper focuses specifically on children's talk about their art in relation to the children's view that their world is separate and distinct from…

These studies confirm the view that the "air gap" phenomenon, which refers to the area that remains when ground and sky lines are constructed at the bottom and top of a drawing, is commonly found in the free drawings of middle and later childhood, but that it is readily abandoned when task demands are modified accordingly. (Author/DB)

The author reviews cross-cultural studies of children's art, with emphasis on the problems entailed in such research. He draws from these studies implications for further research in children's artistic development. (SJL)

Young children drew two opaque objects placed one behind the other. Over two-thirds of the children drew the objects separately in horizontal or vertical relationships. When drawing an object in a glass beaker, half of the children depicted the object vertically or horizontally separate from the beaker. (Author/DB)

This article reviews the major principles of Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development (equilibrium, structure, and scheme); outlines his two stages that best characterize elementary children (preoperational thought and concrete operations); and describes features of the child's artistic growth during these two stages. Questions needing…

The author discusses his cross cultural study of the painting styles of 9- to 12-year-old children in Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. He compares their art products--all illustrations of the Noah's Ark story. A sample of the drawings illustrates the text. (SJL)

This study examined the relationship between the visual elaboration characteristic of paired-associate learning and figural elaboration as found in the graphic representations of preadolescents (ages 8-12) and as measured by nonverbal creativity measures. Significant correlations between figural variables and one or both visual variables were…

Sixty-one children were asked to construct a man, using six different methods. Data indicate that ability to identify body parts, eye-hand coordination, or use of particular materials made no significant differences in success, which seemed more related to the understanding that shapes may have symbolic meaning. (Author/SJL)

Examines the case of Nadia, an autistic child with unusual graphic ability. Considers the development of her skill in relation to hypotheses about drawing, intelligence, and conceptual thought. Illustrations are included. Commentaries on this article by Charles Cleland and Martin Rayala appear on pages 68-72 of this issue. (SJL)

This paper re-evaluates traditional approaches to the study of children's drawings in the light of current process-oriented research. A tentative synthesis of accounts of developmental stages in drawing is followed by an appraisal of drawings analysis in applied psychology. Main features of the new approach are outlined. (Author)